Land Tenure Security and Peacebuilding in Aceh, Indonesia

In this article, I address whether activities meant to improve land tenure security may havesupported or undermined peace-building during the postwar stabilization and transitionperiod of 2005–2008. In 2005, the population of Aceh began recovery from both a 29-yearseparatist war and the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami. Property and tenure systems wereseverely damaged by both the war and tsunami. The primary project designed to supportland tenure security during this periodwas an internationally funded and state-administeredproject called the Reconstruction of Aceh Land Administration System (RALAS). RALASsuccessfully registered land in several areas of Aceh and rebuilt much of the technicalcapacity of the state land administration system. Yet, the linkage of RALAS primarily topost-disaster activities meant that connections between land tenure security and postwardynamics were often missed. As a result, actors involved in RALAS did not clearly identifyor take advantage of opportunities to link land tenure security to peace-building. In addition,a lack of understanding of fundamental legal problems typical of postwar scenarios causedseveral problems for the implementation of RALAS. This article concludes with lessonslearned regarding the timing, location, institutional capacities, andmethods of implementingland reform for peace building.